6 Simple Internet Marketing Tactics (That Don't Cost A Penny)

Internet marketing doesn't have to be difficult and doesn't have to cost you a fortune. In fact there a number of internet marketing tactics that are highly effective and don't cost a penny.

1. Email Marketing

Possibly the most effective form of internet marketing is email marketing. Email marketing enables you to develop a relationship with your potential customer so that they come to know, like and trust you and as a result, be more inclined to buy from you. As an online business owner, you should be constantly building your email list of prospects. These are people who have shown an interest in your business and given you their permission to send them more information by email.

2. Social Media

As a general rule, most social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram work best for doing a very specific job for your business. And that's creating leads, not sales. Interact with with your target market on social media, deliver valuable information, answer questions, offer quizzes and create contests. All this generates interest in your business and pushes traffic to your website.

3. Give Away Value (For Free)

People love getting something for free. If they know that what you give away is of value to them, they will happily exchange this for their email address (see point #1 above). Items like reports, eBooks, PDFs and even videos are all excellent ways to do this. Regular newsletters will help you keep customers that you already have. Free items that offer value can also be passed around internet from person to person, all driving traffic back to your website.

4. Video Marketing

Videos are easy to create and there are lots of free tools to enhance your video. People enjoy watching videos. They boost traffic to your website and it's a great way to promote your products and services. Plus, you don't even need to appear on camera if you don't want to.

5. Write A Blog

Blogging is all about informing and educating. Writing a blog helps to broaden your business, catch the attention of more clients and maintain relationships with your existing customers.Regular blog updates keep your website content fresh which helps to get your website noticed by the search engines.

6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This organic, or unpaid traffic, is important for every online business. It's all about getting the right keywords and phrases onto your website pages so that the search engines see your website and list it in their search page search results.

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5 Inexpensive (And Even Free) Ways To Boost Your Online Business

Believe it or not, it is possible to promote your online business without spending a fortune in cash. In fact, you can pretty much do it without spending any money at all if you know what to do.

Here are 5 inexpensive ways to boost your online business.

1. Content Marketing

Content is king on the internet. It's one of your most important marketing strategies. Content marketing is made up of all forms of content such as videos, blogs, white papers, reviews, articles, reports, eBooks, video courses, email series and so forth. Content is necessary for selling, educating, engagement and information.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is how you enhance your website so that it can be seen by the search engines and listed in their search results. Initially, there is on-page SEO. This concerns refining each page of your website with the right keyword terms, navigation, headlines and so on. Then there is off-page SEO. This is everything you do off your website to bring people to your website such as guest blogging, forum commenting, and getting authoritative links back to your website.

3. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your online business. More people read emails online than any other activity, including using a search engine or social media. When you have an email addresses of a prospect you can send out discounts, sales information and free information to connect with your market and boost your brand.

4. Blogging

Blogging is a big source of traffic for many websites. It's a great way to get your message out to your audience. You can write the posts yourself or you can hire out a freelancer to do it for you. Blogging can take time to get into a habit of doing it, but writing a post a day can help gain momentum. You also want to consider doing longer blog posts, less often, to get results.

5. Video Marketing

Video gives you the potential to reach a huge audience who are looking for your products and services. Submitting relevant videos to sites like YouTube, Vimeo and other video sharing websites is a great strategy to boost your online business. Video provides a long-term impact and delivers the ideal interactive vehicle for your marketing message. You can literally make a video using your smart phone and upload it to YouTube in minutes.

For any online business to grow, it has to find new customers. There's a big potential marketplace on the internet, but it's also competitive. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of other websites selling products and services that are similar to yours. Here are 7 proven ways to find new customers online and increase sales: http://jonallo.com/find-new-customers-online/

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Content Marketing Trends in 2017

Content marketing has already evolved over the past several years and today it has become a key factor for any business or product to go through this unique marketing strategy in order to gain audiences. The purpose of content marketing is not only to pitch your product or services, but also give your audiences something that is relevant and timely to help them solve their issues.

As market standards are shifting, technology is evolving, and consumer preferences are being changed, "What they really want?" becomes a more difficult question to answer. Nowadays content marketers are required to evaluate the subjective situations and adapt emerging market trends at a faster rate than ever before. They need to keep updated with all the latest trends.

Data-driven Insights:

Assuring convincing, reliable customer experiences are the main target for marketing executives. Yet many marketers declare it as an overwhelming task to distribute the right content at the right time to the right audience.

As most of the audiences spend more time online with their mobile devices, there are enormous amounts of data to manipulate strategies for companies in every industry. To have the maximum impact, content marketing businesses should work on gathering, interpreting, and acting on data to turn it into valuable insights and actionable data-driven marketing campaigns.

Video and Live Feature:

Due to evolution in mobile technology, the demand for interactive video content is making a massive impact. It's a fact: studies have confirmed that visual marketing and content is powerful and humans get attracted to visual content faster. Consumers want something incredible that stands out, pulls them in, and connects them. Video and live streaming feature for content marketing will help your efforts stand above the rest. Social media platforms like Facebook are enhancing and optimizing their live video feature to make it easier than ever for users to promote videos and submerge themselves in the content.

Re-emergence of Email Marketing:

Even though many think newsletters are among a disappearing class of communications, email persists to be a critical approach to promote and grow audiences. According to a research, more than 205 billion emails are sent daily. Plus, the numbers are in actual consistently going up in many cases, demonstrating that email is on the rise as a source of information for customers. This figure is expected to reach 246 billion daily emails by 2019. So, considering email marketing in the coming years is highly recommended as its one of the rising trend these days.

Social Media Platform:

As social media websites are being used by many users every day. It has become one of the key part of human's life these days. Many startups and small business promote their organization and services on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. The necessity of the promotion of content on these platforms has become essential due to its countless usage. So, content marketers should consider this uprising trend of promoting on social media critically and make the most of it.

There are many other trends as well that can be considered by content writers and marketers to reach millions of potential users to address their needs and promoting businesses. However, these are some of the most critical and rapidly rising trend for the coming years that must not be neglected.

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Tips for Sustaining in The World of Online Marketing

Online marketing is the latest tool for leaving a mark in the market. It is the new-age way of advertising that is closest to our transformed behavioral pattern, which makes the entry into market a lot easier. Here are some tips for the beginners as they enter the world of online marketing.

1. Blogging is as fruitful as any other social media platform.  We maybe too eager about making our presence on Facebook, but one other medium which may prove to be equally fruitful is blogging. A well written blog has the ability to draw attention which is majorly dependent on the quality of content. It will enhance your SEO rating and also help in building up the desired image.

2. Content is the king and its design, the Commander in Chief.  As much as we rely on content, designing also forms one of the most prominent aspect of a brand's social media presence. It's one of the most influential feature of Online Marketing which has the ability to draw someone's attention instantly. The internet is filled with new ideas and concepts which make it challenging and fun at the same time.

3. Go crazy with your ideas, the unique ones always leave a mark!  With its constantly changing dynamics and the ever-increasing presence people in the online world, the rules keep on changing. Thus, making it very necessary for people to adapt with the changes. The more unique your idea, the better chance it has of hitting it off with the target audience.

4. E-mail marketing will never become obsolete.  

That's right! If you are on the internet, you are sure to have an e-mail id. It is that one tool which keeps our online activities unified. This makes it easier to create an interpersonal bond with a huge number of people at the same time.

5. Tweet it, beat it!  If you want to form your online marketing strategy purely based on organic reach, then Twitter is just the tool for you. It allows you to reach a large number of people based entirely on hashtags and content. Twitter is that bird which sings the tune your way, but alters the lyrics according to your target audience.

6. Online Marketing? Start with Facebook!  Facebook undoubtedly is the best biggest pool of potential customers that you can acquire through online marketing for your business. Whether it is paid promotions or simply attracting customers through your content, Facebook is an open field for everybody which lets you drive your marketing to the right channels and at the right time.

7. Reviews and testimonials are a boon!  People often rely largely on reviews and testimonials given by others. It has become a major online marketing tool which allows you to set a brand image and at the same time uplift morale.

Online Marketing is sure to give your business the boost that it deserves. These tips will come handy when you actually enter the market. So go ahead and carve a niche for yourself!

Ecumen is the leading e-commerce provider of India and comes equipped with multiple services. If you are looking to generate leads and sustain in this business for long, Ecumen is just the stop!

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5 Elementary Ways of Online Marketing

Online Marketing can be referred as another tool for digital or internet marketing. It is the marketing of your brand and products through digital media, that is, the Internet using various tools and sources of media. The most important thing is to create a brand reputation which helps you to drive maximum sales. Also reaching out to customers have become easier through online media which encourages engagement with your customers.

In this article, I would like to share ways of online marketing by which you can build up a brand reputation and can help you to drive sales.

Read on...

1. Content Marketing

It includes posting blogs, eBooks and interesting content on the web. Basically, it is the marketing of the content that you post on your website including infographics and videos. If the quality of the content is worth reading and sharing, then no doubt people will start reading your blog which will build a brand and quality reputation. This also helps you to get organic traffic.

2. Social Media Marketing

As we know people are more active on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others. Using social media to market your content and brand increases brand awareness and website traffic. Posting updates on social media go viral within seconds. Also, responding to complaints, requests, and praise becomes easier.

3. Email Marketing

According to research, it has been noted that people check their emails 8 or more times a day. Email Marketing is leading the way for sales by sending helpful, relevant messages to the email contacts that have subscribed to receive emails from you. It helps to keep your customers engaged with your company and build brand loyalty.

4. Online Advertising

Advertising through digital medium involves publishing your ads on various websites, social media platforms and even on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. It is generally paid or performed on the commission basis as pay per click on third party websites. You can also use Google AdWords as well. It also helps to gain website traffic and deliver marketing messages to the right customers.

5. Online Surveys

These can be sent as web forms, generally on email or you can create a page on your website for the survey form. It stores the database with answers which act as analytics to your brand. This helps to examine and evaluate the reputation you are building with your customers. You can improve by knowing the flaws in building your brand reputation.

Above article is associated with techstack which is providing digital marketing course in delhi with more than 25 modules of digital marketing.

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Email Marketing: Do You Want To Triple Your Return On Investment?

Introduction:

One of the biggest mistakes most marketers do nowadays, is think email marketing is dead. Many marketers today drop the email marketing scheme to go with social media. Come to think of it, social media look much more sexy than email. But, is a social media post really as effective as an email? Before we answer that question, lets state a well known fact. It is easier to send a friend request on Facebook than to collect an email online. But believe me, email marketing is thrice as worth it as social media marketing. So, what is email marketing?

Email marketing is the targeting of customers through emails. Every emails sent to a potential customers can be considered as email marketing. Email marketing involves sending a promotional email or an ad to a subscriber. Via his email address. A great deal of organisations today use email marketing. Even more bloggers do use email marketing today than ever before. For example, have you ever been browsing on a website, and you see some field where you are asked to submit your name and email to get a free eBook or update? That is the front part of email marketing.

Most bloggers use email marketing because it enhances the customer experience. With a well targeted email list, you can reach established customers and prospective ones too. Any given subscriber will be informed better and more easily via email. The email will have a greater visibility than a Facebook post. The Facebook post will be drowned in a stream of content in the minutes following its posting.

Do You Really Need Email Marketing?

If you want to improve your customers' or readers' experience, then you need email marketing. Forget about the glamour and the flashy of social media marketing. We are talking efficiency here. We are talking greater engagement. Greater reach. Greater click through rate and more. As many experienced marketers say, " the money is in the list". Some even say "your net worth depends on your network". In the following lines, I will explain the advantages of email marketing. In these explanations, I will use statistics. The sites which produced those stats will be mentioned at the end of this article. So, let's get into the advantages of using email marketing.:

Potential Reach:

Did you know that in 2013, there were about 3.2 billion email accounts created in the world? 95% of online consumers use an email address. The most interesting fact is; 91% of those consumers check their email accounts at least once a day. Today, we browse more with our phones than our computers. As a result, we are more easily notified when we receive emails. Our phones place the notifications right in front of our eyes.

Today, it is easier to check to an email than a Facebook or Twitter post. This is because when we post content, so does a million other people. As a result, finding one particular post you liked 3 weeks ago can be the most daunting task.

Actual Reach:

Before I explain this part in more detail, let's get some interesting numbers. In the first half of 2013, a research conducted using emails as a marketing channel revealed some staggering facts. The one that stands out the most is this; 18% of the emails sent during a campaign never reach their destinations. 4% of the sent emails are sent into the spam folder. That makes 22% of the sent emails that do not actually reach the intended receiver.

On the other hand, 78% of the emails sent during an email campaign actually reach their destination. Think of it this way, If you send 1000 emails, 780 emails will reach their destination. In addition to that, 91% of the receivers check their emails daily. This means, about 709 receivers will actually see your email. This is great efficiency, as less than 30% of the emails sent are lost.

Now, let's compare these numbers with those of a Facebook campaign carried out in the same way. This revealed that 74% of the Facebook posts are actually lost within the big stream of content. That is a problem. That means, per thousand Facebook posts, 740 are lost in the stream of content. That leaves us with 260 posts seen by our target readers. Another bad thing is, everyone who sees your content will not actually click through. Less than half will actually do. That leaves us with less than 130 people who are actually interested in our offers.

Click Through Rates:

In the previous point, we talked about what percentage of people who see and may like your posts and mails. Now let's talk about people who actually complete the actions and do what you want them to do. Let's say clicking on a link. This link may take them to a landing page or a website.

Click through rate is the percentage of people that receive your message and actually click on it. The click through rate of a tweet is 0.5 percent as opposed to 3% for an email. These numbers look small at first. But, this means that people click 6 times more on an email link than on a tweeted link.

Let's keep on using our example of 1000 emails and 1000 social media posts. A 0.5% click through rate means per thousand, 5 people will actually click on your link. This is for social media. Sometimes the click through rates are higher, but those are particular cases. The numbers we use here are average ones.

A 3% click through rate with emails means 30 clicks per thousand. That is the best click through rate you will obtain on average. The numbers are not astounding, but efficient numbers are not always astounding. The difference is such because, when people give you their email addresses they actually want to hear more form you.

Your Readers Want It This Way:

Most people use social media to communicate with friends first. Seldom are they used to receive business news and reviews. There are specialized websites for that. 77% of the users during a survey online said they prefer to receive promotional messages in their emails. 4% said they prefer these messages on social media. This speaks to the fact that by submitting an email, people are literally giving you a business meeting location.

Emails Are Private:

It is easier for a reader to express his problems in private than in the open. Everybody is not comfortable when it comes to expressing their shortcomings in the open. When a user wishes to express his struggles and he can't meet with you, what does he do? He writes you an email. This way, he can tell you everything. You can answer specifically to him.

I will soon create a page where I post user requested content. Every weekend.

Email Marketing and newsletters

Conclusion:

You want to use emails if you want to boast your online presence. Also, this is for you if you want to enhance reader experience. Setting up an email marketing campaign is not really expensive. We are talking about 6$ to 20$. Per month. Some services like MailChimp even offer free services for your first 2000 subscribers.

Email marketing is not dead. If anything, it kills that silence between your subscribers and you. In an upcoming post, I will talk about building an email list. Thanks for reading. Talk to you guys soon.

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Why Is Building An Email List So Important?

An email list is the bread and butter of an online business. It's a collected list of email addresses of customers and prospects that have filled out a form to receive your messages. These email addresses are collected into a database that allows you to easily send out messages both immediately and automated to all the people on your list, or specific ones that you choose.

So why is building an email list so important?

1. You Get Permission

When you get someone to join your email list, you are basically getting permission to communicate and continue marketing to them via email. By subscribing, they are telling you that they want to hear from you and what you have to offer.

2. You Own Your Email List

You don't own your Facebook Page - Facebook does. You don't own your Twitter profile - Twitter does. And it's the same with all your other social media accounts that have followers. The point is, when you're building an email list of people who are interested in what you have to offer, you actually own that list of people. It's an asset you can use to build your online business.

3. You Control Traffic

Building an email list building is the best way to get people to come back to your website. Once you've successfully gotten people to subscribe to your email list, all you have to do is send an email out to your subscribers with a link back to your latest post or information product.

4. It's The Professional Way To Contact Customers

Today most consumers are used to giving their email address to a business, or understand that when they make a purchase the business will need their email address. Email is a common way to communicate and contact customers and is very accepted by most people.

5. Email Marketing Increases Conversion Rates

There's no question that email marketing is one of the most, if not the most, effective forms of marketing that has ever existed. By using email to teach prospects about your business and offerings, you can increase conversions.

6. Email Let's You To Add Value

When you use email to contact people who have signed up to receive your messages, you're connected to them in a very intimate way. This affords you the opportunity, if you plan for it, to add extreme value to your customers' lives by sending them information that solves their problems.

7. Email Keeps You Super Close To Your Customers

You're always with your customers due to smartphones and the ability to send messages to your customers any time of the day. You can contact them at anytime easily with just a click of a button. Just think about how often you check your email.

You're not going to build your email list very fast with a bland opt in offer. If you're offering a boring, "seen it all before" report that doesn't address your visitor's problems with any urgency, they won't be enticed to give you their email details.To learn how you can build your email list with an opt in offer that your audience can't resist go to: http://jonallo.com/build-your-email-list-fast/

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Follow This Email Marketing Etiquette to Get Your Email Delivered and Read

You can reassure your prospective customers that the emails you send are safe and reliable by following a few simple email marketing etiquette rules:

1. Don't Sensationalize the Headline

The default setting for Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, and the other popular email providers is to show who the sender is and the headline. In some instances, the first few words of the email text itself will appear on the user's email queue.

That makes the headline the first important element of your email. If it is overly exaggerated, makes extraordinary claims, or is otherwise sensational, there's a better chance that the email will either be sent directly to the "Spam" folder or deleted by the user without being read.

The objective is to get the reader to open the email, so your headline has to give them a reason to do so. You want to capture their imagination and engage their interest, but not go over the top. Avoid using exclamation points - especially multiple exclamation points - as well as ALL CAPS and crazy colors because this will most likely tag your email as spam.

2. Use the Person's Name, If Known

The greeting is the first thing the reader will see when they open your email. If you know the user's name (because you either know them personally, they are already on your list, or their name was included on an email list you have purchased) use your autoresponder to insert their first name in the greeting, such as "Dear Paul" or "Dear Sandra."

Email tends to be less formal than traditional letter-writing, so in most cases using the person's first name is perfectly acceptable. Using the person's last name can often seem off-putting, such as "Dear Mr. Stewart" or "Dear Ms. Simpson." Exceptions would include formal titles such as "Doctor," "Professor," or a military title.

3. Get to the Point

Because emails are less formalized than traditional letter-writing, and because people get so many emails every day, the person receiving your email probably isn't going to give it much attention. That's why it is critically important that you get to the point of your email right away, starting with the very first sentence.

In email writing, you have to give the reader a reason to keep reading. Don't waste time by beating around the bush or trying to build up to your point slowly. You have only a few moments to maintain the reader's attention, so make the most of it.

4. Signing Off

Another difference between traditional letter writing and emails is the sign-off. You don't have to include a formal "Sincerely" or "Gratefully yours."

Simply ending with your name is perfectly acceptable. Or, if you prefer, you can use an informal phrase such as "Chat with you soon" or "Cheers."

Following these general email etiquette protocols will increase the chances that the person receiving your email will open it and read it. Make sure the content of your email pushes the person to the action that you want them to perform, such as clicking on a link included in the body of your email.

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7 Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid to Run a Successful Campaign

Mistakes are inevitable.We all make mistakes. Some are big and some are insignificant. But when it comes to business, every single move adds to the final impact. Therefore, even an unseen mistake can cause serious damage and can affect the entire business operation.

Email marketing is one of the prominent channels of marketing used by businesses today. It not only helps businesses to position their brand and engage prospects but can also help in attaining astronomical sales revenue. Therefore, it becomes crucial for every marketing professional to be cautious while triggering an email marketing campaign. Here we mention 7 mistakes that should not be part of your email marketing campaign.

Mistake #1: You send without testing

Confidence is the key to success, but do not forget that we are amidst the ever-growing jungle of PCs and web-based email software. Businesses gain confidence by spotting flaws and resolving them in just few minutes testing a message in popular email clients like Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, etc. Ensure that all the links work properly, images load correctly and there are no spelling or grammar mistakes. To get maximum return from an email campaign you must lay emphasis on how the message is displayed on various email programs. For an intense review of the message you can use services like Email Analysis. Moreover, if you are managing a campaign at pro level, A/B testing can always be fruitful in testing variations of the same message on a sample list, and then trigger the best performing one.

Mistake #2: You do not bother about a permission based mailing list

Unless you have recipient's permission, anything you send through an email is almost a spam, which is strictly against the law. Today, numerous businesses take shortcuts and purchase email lists and compile them in an unethical way. Do not forget, that spam also hampers your brand reputation. Read all the information on CAN-SPAM act to be well informed. Being aggressive sometimes drive businesses towards desperations, which leads to these unethical tactics. You can go through the Federal Trade Commission website to take corrective actions to mitigate the damage caused by your past mistakes.

Mistake #3: Yours choice of "From" and "Subject" are really poor

7 Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid to Run a Successful Campaign

After the mailing list mistake this is another common one the email marketers usually commit. Pay special attention to "from" and "subject line". It is a fact that your prospect takes a fraction of a second time to decide whether to open an email or not. In case, the recipients don't recognize the sender, it takes no time for them to move on or deleting the mail.

Mistake #4: Poor call-to-action usage

You run an email campaign for a purpose. And you want the readers to take a decision on reading your mail. You may want them to go to your website and register or download a piece of information or take a similar step. Whatever the objective may be, make your call-to-action statement simple and clear. Also, make sure that the landing page you choose to make your visitors land after clicking takes them to the right page to ensure your readers get what they want.

Mistake #5:You put graphics everywhere

It's a common mindset that graphics excites the readers and compel them to stay engaged, but the fact is that such days are gone.Today's readers are aware about their needs.Too much graphics can over shadow your primary message and may cause slower download speed that can turn off your readers.So, keep yourself away from such pump and show and be concise and to the point, thus helping the reader to take an action.

Mistake #6: You do not optimize your emails for mobile devices

7 Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid to Run a Successful Campaign

The volume of mobile users is ruling the internet realm today. You have to be quite assured that your emails look good on mobile devices. Moreover, they should also be user-friendly for your subscribers. Make sure that all your buttons, links, call-to-action are big and distinct so that the readers don't accidentally click on the wrong links.The layout, responsiveness and compatibility are vital factors to ensure readability irrespective of devices it is viewed on.

Mistake #7: Your blind belief on purchased list

Businesses, especially the startups often show a strong affinity towards readymade mailing list. However, today most of the reputable email marketing agencies won't suggest you to email on a purchased list as they don't want to get dinged by spam complaints. But the right reason to not to go for a purchased list is the results. They can be so shocking that you would probably want your money back. Be patient and focus on building a list for a loyal consumer base. Remember, great email programs were not built overnight; it takes time to build a list that really works.

What do you think?

Have you ever made any such mistakes with your email marketing? Readers, if you think that you have dealt with a tough situation with your email marketing then please do share your experience below the post. We are always eager to listen and learn!

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Digital Marketing to Promote Businesses to Greater Heights of Success

Conventional or off-line marketing has existed since the beginning of history. But, these days, if a business is to achieve success then, there is just no better alternative to on-line marketing. To put it in short, on-line or digital marketing is all about promoting a business across the virtual domain of the Internet. Some of the core strategies for this line of marketing include web designing, email marketing, social media promotion, search engine optimisation, content marketing including videos and others. This modern marketing concept is potential enough to make or break major international brands and small-scale startup businesses, along with everything that range in between.

Overlapping domains of conventional and digital marketing

Any marketing approach through digital media channels is digital or on-line marketing. The domain of digital media is fast expanding. Presently, social media channels, websites, TV, radio, mobile handsets and even non digital media like billboards and transit displays are considered as digital marketing components. In other words, at present, conventional marketing include aspects like P2P (person to person) marketing, elements of direct marketing that on-line marketing does not cover and print advertising. Actually, the domains of off-line and on-line marketing are fast overlapping each other. Elements of traditional marketing like on-line directories, URL landing pages, web banner advertising, QR codes and others have a strong connection with on-line marketing.

Reasons to assign greater importance to digital media

It is not just marketers and business owners who are driving the shift to digital media. Even consumers are contributing to this phase change. The majority of digital media channels, including various social media platforms and websites, can be more easily tracked. Whereas, print media and other traditional marketing approaches are hardly easy in that aspect.

In contrast to traditional advertising, its on-line counterpart is much cost-effective. Unlike running conventional advertising, one does not need to invest a fortune in running on-line advertising campaigns. The modern advertising approach is equally ideal for small, medium and large-scale businesses, as well as for startup brands.

These days, consumers do not flip through yellow-pages or directories anymore, to find any business to avail its products or services. They Google the required information, either using their hand-held mobiles, laptops or desktops. Thus, businesses hardly have any better alternative other than depending on on-line marketing using the platform of digital media.

Dependable web solutions companies

In this vastly changed landscape, businesses need to hire reliable web solutions-providers. Actually, modern marketing efforts for businesses revolve around building smart and business-friendly websites. A corporate website should ideally represent both the business and the brand. It is also important to ensure that it is easily navigable and user-friendly. Last but never the least, businesses need to invest on optimising their websites, so that the sites rank higher in SERP (Search Engine Result Page).

There are many freelancers, providing web design, development and SEO services at reasonable rates. It is better to pay a higher price and hire a professional brand that provides comprehensive web solutions than working with freelancers. There are many brands that provide a wide and impressive range of services including web design, search engine optimisation (SEO), content marketing, PPC advertising, social media marketing and many more. Hiring such companies will give better mileage in course of time.

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Niche Awareness - 5 Things You Need to Know

When you are first starting out in internet marketing one of the hardest things to do can be deciding which niche market you are going to target.

I know when I was first starting out I went from having no idea what area I would be targeting to being bombarded by so many different niche markets my head was spinning at the prospect of picking just one or two.

With that in mind I am going to look at some of the various kinds of niche markets available to you as well as a few other things you will need to consider, with the intention of casting a little light on the subject and hopefully as a result make the whole process of choosing a niche market that bit easier for you.

1. Try traditional niche markets

The traditional niche markets break down into three main categories

• Health and Fitness

• Wealth Creation

• Lifestyle

Each of these markets has existed for far longer than the internet has and will always be in demand. In fact, these markets have existed since before the beginning of marketing itself.

For example, people are always looking to improve their health, this could be health in general or dealing with a health condition that they have to live with such as diabetes, high blood pressure, back pain, asthma or IBS to name but a few.

Maybe you are more interested in the fitness side of things, again the scope for this market is huge and very much in demand. People are always looking for ways to work out at home or shorten their time at the gym with different ways to get the maximum results in the shortest amount of time. A lot of these gym goers are looking at ways to put on weight or build muscle.

Which brings me nicely onto what is probably the biggest area under the health and fitness banner, this is weight loss. The global weight loss market is estimated to be worth £220 million with an estimated 29 million Brits attempting to lose weight last year alone and with obesity on the rise this market is only going to get bigger. With that in mind there's always a marketplace out there that will be hungry for information in this area.

In the same way, people are always looking to make more money, maybe they have retired and want something to fill their time and top up their pension, or they could be looking for something to do as a hobby that can generate a little extra cash to supplement their wages. It could be, they have dreams of quitting the drudgery of the 9 to 5 and starting out on their own. As with health and fitness, wealth creation is a huge marketplace with numerous possibilities.

Similarly, lifestyle is an area that people want to improve constantly, this again covers a wide range of subjects, quitting smoking or drinking could also be covered by the health and fitness banner but tends to come under lifestyle as does improving sleep and stress management. You could also look at relaxation techniques and meditation as well as the very popular relationship niche. So as you can see a vast number of people will always be looking for solutions within this market.

In conclusion, the markets I've mentioned are a fantastic place to start if you're thinking of going into internet marketing, or even if you're already up and running and you want to explore a new niche then these are huge markets for you to tap into.

2. Solve peoples problems

Every single person who is in internet marketing brings a wealth of knowledge with them, and if you think that this is not true for you, then you are wrong. We all have things that we are passionate about, or are knowledgeable in, it could be a hobby that you have been doing for years or maybe you do a job in which you have gained knowledge that could be passed on to the less initiated - insider information, tricks of the trade etc. You can use what you know or love to help solve other peoples problems. Even if you don't have all the answers, with access to the internet you have all the experts in your chosen topic at your finger tips - just Google it! And if you're solving a problem, you're helping someone. If you're helping someone, then you can get paid for your time and effort.

Every single day people all over the world are looking for answers to problems they may have, in every single subject under the sun. Don't believe me? try googling 'how to get my bread to rise' and you get over 5.6 million results, or try 'How to improve my golf swing' and over 1.25 million results are returned, or try something more obscure like 'How to stop my dog barking' and you get over 770,000 results. What I'm trying to say here is that regardless of what you are knowledgeable about there is someone out there looking for answers to problems in that particular area.

If you can provide a solution to the people who are looking for answers, in a way that they can easily access, then you can get paid for doing it.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to produce an e-book and with websites such as Amazon kindle direct publishing; https://kdp.amazon.com it's now easier than ever to get your e-book out into the market place. If you add an audio or video version as well, then you will greatly improve your widespread appeal.

Do your research right and you can easily find the most common problems in your chosen niche. A very good way of finding what problems people need solving is to go direct to the market itself. One of the best places to look can be online forums dedicated to your chosen subject, you will find numerous people here looking for answers to an abundance of problems. Places like Yahoo Answers are also a great way of finding out what problems people are facing. If you want to you can always go and survey people in your chosen niche.

This is not only a great way to find out what problems people need solving, it's also very valuable to you because the people are basically telling you what product they need. All you have to do is give it to them.

3. Do your research

Research within your chosen niche is vital. It's important because it tells you what the market is thinking and more importantly what it wants. It also tells you if the demand is big enough to be worth your time and effort creating products that that particular market is asking for.

By going direct to the market you can discover what problems they face, what solutions they've tried, what has worked and what hasn't worked, you'll get a better insight into what people want and be better placed to provide a solution in a targeted way.

If you already have a list, that's great, send them a brief email questionnaire, ask them what they want to learn about, what problems they have (short term and long term), what kind of information they need.

One great way to find a niche market is to use the Google Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal You can see how many people are searching for a specific word or phrase, this is an invaluable tool to ascertain if there is a demand for the niche you are considering. If there are 10,000 searches per month or more and very little competition from advertisers, you may well have found yourself a niche that's ready and waiting to be tapped into.

4. Keep looking

It's important as an internet marketer to constantly be on the lookout for new ideas and continue to search for new niches and markets that you can potentially tap into, this will not only increase the number of income streams you have but will also ensure that you are not putting all your eggs into one basket should one niche area start to wane. Having said that, don't give up on one niche just because you have had a successful product. If one product has worked, then the potential is there to sell more, keep going in that same niche until you have 4 or 5 good products all making you money.

Don't forget to keep a constant relationship with your existing buyers, send out emails at least once a month, send them offers, upsells and other products that you think they may be interested in. Remember it is easier and cheaper to sell to someone who has already been a customer than to sell to a complete stranger.

You are surrounded by places where you can gain inspiration for new niche markets. Try going to the magazine section of your local shop, look at the various magazines on sale and the subjects they cover, chances are that If there's a magazine for it, then it is likely to have enough potential buyers to be a worthwhile niche market.

As I mentioned earlier you can also find inspiration by playing around with the Google Ads Keyword Tool as well.

5. Go deeper

What I mean by this is quite simply finding more specific fields of interest within your chosen niche. For example, maybe your niche is the beauty market so then your more specific areas within this market could be hair, or nails, looking younger or even the make-up niche.

Taking the make-up niche as an example, you can narrow this down to things such as applying lipstick, foundations for different skin types, or applying eye make up.

Lets say you decide to create products about eye make-up, If you are somewhat of an expert on this subject then that's great, turn what you know into an e-book or a step by step video tutorial. If you are not then don't worry you could interview experts in this area and maybe record the interview and produce your product from this.

By going deeper and being more precise you could really get the most out of your chosen niche and because you're being very specific you can open up a whole world of possibilities to build on. Remember people love to learn from experts and so that attention to detail will pay off.

It's also a good idea to think laterally within your niche market and consider what other products or services people might be interested in. As I mentioned earlier, if people have already bought from you, then suggest other products you think they may be interested in or offer them an upsell of another higher priced product.

Finally, make sure that you take careful notes of what works and what doesn't work, then maybe look at how you can use what works in the future and whether you can fix the things that do not work or if you need to discard them and try a different approach.

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